Tech Approach to Wellness

MindBody, which offers online business-management software to the health, beauty, and fitness industries, houses sales and technical support staff in its offices at the Red Horse Plaza in East Hampton.
Morgan McGivern

The bright, spacious offices of MindBody, at the Red Horse Plaza in East Hampton, offer a look at a fast-growing tech company serving the health, beauty, and fitness industries.
The company, founded in 2001 and based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., with offices in Sydney, Australia, London, and East Hampton, offers online business-management software encompassing scheduling, payroll, point-of-sale, analytical reports, merchant account processing, and marketing and client retention tools. Clients include personal trainers, physical therapists, stylists, yoga and martial arts studios, health clubs, and spas. The company’s product line was recently expanded to offer mobile applications for on-the-go management.
Last month, MindBody marked 25,000 subscribers, with more than 1,000 new clients signing on monthly. With the acquisition of Jill’s List, an online platform for integrative health care practitioners, also last month, MindBody launched a new wellness network to enable employers to focus on holistic and preventive approaches to wellness for their own employees. In December, Inc. magazine’s inaugural Hire Power Award recognized the company as a leading job creator in the country and in its industry.
“We’re growing very rapidly,” said Georgia Suter, the media relations program manager, who spent two years in the company’s sales department before assuming her present role. For sales positions, she said, “we generally require an interest or background in software, technology, and wellness, but we have people that come into a sales position and haven’t had sales or technology experience.” The local office’s count of seven employees, when Ms. Suter joined the firm in 2011, has swelled to around 45 today, she said. The local sales manager, Michael Goldsmith, is currently looking to hire 15 additional sales reps.
MindBody’s software products, Ms. Suter said, “streamline all of your business needs into one place. Because it’s Web-based, you can access any part of your business wherever you may be. It makes your business really accessible to you and brings everything into one place. It integrates your payroll with your client management with your point-of-sale — everything is bundled together. And we have 24/7 tech support.”
As one might imagine, the company is wellness-oriented toward its employees. Yoga classes happen on Tuesday and Friday mornings, and a personal training class is offered on Thursdays. A monthly wellness voucher program grants employees $50 worth of products or services from participating businesses that use MindBody’s software, including Naturopathica Holistic Health Spa, located in the same complex. “We also have nutrition programs,” Ms. Suter said.
While yoga sessions keep staffers grounded and centered, the company’s far-flung personnel, spread across three continents, are linked via satellite. “We’re so connected with all these different parts of the world,” Ms. Suter said. “The energy and the rapid growth, the wellness classes — all happening in what we perceive to be a quiet little town.”